MARIA SIBILLA MERIAN. 33 



them exhibit more of the artist than of the naturalist, 

 being disposed with a view to effect, rather than for 

 the purpose of displaying their habitual and charac- 

 teristic attitudes. When circumstances did not 

 admit of personal observation, she gave far too easy 

 belief to the reports of the Indians, who seem 

 occasionally to have imposed upon her. Hence it 

 is that she has introduced many idle stories into her 

 work, for which her only authority is, persuasum 

 e$t mihi ah Indis ; and also the fictitious figure in 

 Plate XLIX. composed of the body of a Tettigonia, 

 surmounted by the mitred head of a lantern fly, the 

 manufacture, in all probability, of some cunning 

 negro, who doubtless turned the unique specimen 

 to good account. The work, besides, is preeminently 

 liable to the objection which applies so forcibly to 

 all the pictorial illustrations published both in that 

 and the succeeding age ; namely, a want of precision 

 and finishing in the minute details, which are 

 indispensable requisites in every delineation de- 

 signed to be of service in natural history. 



But notwithstanding these defects, some of which 

 are almost inseparable from the nature of the un- 

 dertaking, while others are to be ascribed to the 

 imperfect state of engraving at that period, as ap- 

 plied to the representation of natural objects, the 

 work in question forms an important contribution 

 to the library of the naturalist, and is a striking 

 memorial of the zeal and ability of its fair author, 

 ne fidelity with which many tropical plants are 



